Python is a good language to learn; there is alot of documentation for new programmers who haven't programmed in their life. It's also not just a 'newbie language'. Python can be used in any situation for a range of tasks. NASA use Python for example, and being very high level Python is easy to read and modify, it's not far from Pseudocode in that sense.

There are many great Ebooks for Python, if you want any let me know and I'll PM you some download links.

Are you specifically interested only in software development? Java is a great multi-platform language with some really great IDE's available that have plugin capability for other languages (Eclipse). On the hardware end it's good to learn some assembly language as well. That way you can better understand what is happening at all machine levels.